Pallet



Oct. 5, 1948 I H. LEHRMAN 2,450,432

PALLET Filed Sept. 26, 1944 TOR.

v RM Ha r'r 1487"" Patented Oct. 5, 1948 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE PALLET Harry Lehrman, Brooklyn, N. Y.

Application September 26, 1944, Serial No. 555,861

Claims. (Cl. 248-120) (Granted under the act of March 3, 1883, as

. v 1 The invention described herein, if patented may be manufactured and used by or for the Government for governmental purposes, without the payment to me of any royaltyithereon.

The present invention relates to pallets or small 5 Referring to the drawings in greater detail, the wooden platforms used for stacking and warenumeral I indicates a plurality of stringers of housing freight and providing aconvement means, wood, metal or the like suitably spaced and arin conjunction with lift trucks, for transferring ranged in parallel relationship to provide a pallet freight from place to place. of the desired dimensions, three of these stringers These devices are usually formed of a number being shown in the P t instill-106- TO the of cross-pieces or stringers to which are attached upper and lower faces of these stringers are seupper and lower series of base members and loadcured series of Wooden planks 2 constituting loadsupporting members, constituting surfaces upon supporting members and base members. which the freight may be loaded; either surface As mentioned above, the pallets of the prior art being employedas a support for the goods. Conhave had a major defect in that they had a tendsiderable difficulty has been encountered with ency to "wrack or fold up during use. This earlier pallets, due in part to "wracking or folddefect has been overcome in the present arrangeing up of the pallet because of inadequate strength ment by providing a series of transverse notches 3 at the joints between the load-supporting memon the upper and lower faces of each of the bers and stringers, and also due to the splitting stringers I, and in order that the stringers may of these elements by repeated pounding, from the not be unduly weakened, the notches in the upper ends of the lift forks, and other causes. Conseand lower series are stag e as i dicated in quently, where great amounts of freight are han- Figure 2. In the present instance, five notches died, it has been necessary not only to maintain are provided in the upper faces of the cleats and a large number of workmen for repair purposes, four in the lower faces, to receive an equal number but also to have a large reserve of pallets for use of the planks 2. Bolts 4 extending through the in lieu of those which have become useless or stringers are employed for firmly locking the temporarily so. planks within their respective grooves.

It is a primary object of the present invention, For the purpose of protecting the ends of the therefore, to produce a pallet having an excepstringers against splitting, chipping and the like, tionally high resistance to wracking by improving by pounding of the lift forks, each end is provided the joints between the planks constituting the with a metal collar 5, which is tightly fitted upper and lower surfaces of the pallet and the thereto. It will be noted that the outer grooves cross-pieces or stringers. on the face of the stringer to which five of the It is a further object of the invention to conplanks are secured, extend to the ends of the struct a pallet having a high degree of resistance stringer so that these end grooves are provided to injury by the lifting forks and yet which is not with only one end wall. The other end wall necesunduly heavy. sary to complete these grooves is formed by a A still further object of the invention resides metal flange 6 which may constitute an integral in the provision of a pallet having the above charpart of the collars 5. acteristics and which is capable of receiving the The flanges 6, in addition to completing the' lift forks in any one of its four edges. end notches of the stringers, also serve as a pro- Other objects and advantages of the invention tection for the edges of the end planks of the will be apparent from the following description particular series. Additional protection for the when taken in connection with the accompanying outer edges of the end planks may be provided by drawings, in which, the modified construction shown in Figure 4, in

Figure 1 is a perspective view of the novel pallet. which a continuous flange 1 extends throughout Figure 2 is an end view thereof. the length of the plank and is secured to the three Figure 3 is a perspective view of one of the collars on the adjacent ends of the stringers i. stringers. An additional means for protecting the planks Figure 4 is a fragmentary perspective view of against splitting or chipping comprises metal a modified construction of stringer collar and rings or collars 8 which encircle and tightly bind protective flange. the ends of the several planks 2. I

Figure 5 is a sectional view taken on line 5-5 It is often desirable that the lift forks of the of Figure 4. conveying machine enter the space between the amended April 30, 1928; 370 0. 757) 2 Figures 6 and 7 are detail views of modified forms of collars and protective devices, and

Figure 8 is a perspective view of one of the collars used in protectin the plank ends.

acrea e upper and lower planks of a pallet at either the sides or ends thereof. Accordingly, the stringers I may be provided with one or more elongated openings 9 for the purpose of receiving the lift forks when the pallets are so positioned as to best receive them from that particular direction.

In Figure 6 is shown a slightly modified means for shielding the load-supporting members and stringers in a standard reversible pallet. In such pallets the upper and lower planks are arranged in vertical alignment, and accordingly upper and lower flange members H] are provided. These members ill are shown as connected by collars for engaging the ends of the stringers I. These collars may take the form of spaced vertical webs I I welded to the flange members it) or rectangular collars such as shown in Figures 1 to inclusive may be employed.

In the modified construction shown in Figure 7 the rectangular collar 'of Figure 1 is modified to the extent that an additional flange is pro-' vided. These flanges are indicated by the numeral l2 and serve to complete the end grooves and protect the edges of the end planks when arranged in vertical alignment in lieu of the staggered relation shown in Figures 1 and 2.

The purpose and function of the various novel features of the construction have been described in connection with the description of the structural details and need not be repeated. It should be emphasized, however, that the present construction is designed to eliminate "wracking or folding of pallets by providing fifty-four resistance points at the juncture of the planks and stringers; that the possibility of splitting the planks and stringers i reduced to a minimum by the use of the collars and protective flanges, and that the construction is such as to permit the entrance of the lifting forks in any one of the four edges of the pallet.

In accordance with the patent statutes I have described what I now consider to be the preferred forms of the invention but it is obvious that minor changes may be made in the structural details without departing from the spirit of the invention and it is intended that all such changes be included within the scope of the appended claims.

What is claimed is:

1. A pallet comprising a plurality of wooden stringers formed with transverse notches in at least one face thereof, the notches at the ends of the series extending to the ends of the string ers, metal collars encircling and binding the ends of the stringers, a flange extending from each collar to form one wall of the notch at the respective end of the stringer, a series of planks extending transversely of the stringers and seated in the series of notches, and means for securing the planks within the notches.

2. A pallet comprising a plurality of wooden stringers formed with a series of transverse notches in opposite faces thereof, the notches in one series being staggered with respect to the notches in the other series, the notches at the ends of one series extending to the ends of the stringers, a series of planks extending transversely of 'the stringers and seated in the notches, means for securing the planks in the notches, metal collars surrounding and binding the ends of the stringers, and flanges extending from one side of the collars for completing the sides of the end notches in one series and for protecting the side edge of the planks in such notches.

3. A pallet comprising a plurality of wooden stringers formed with a series of transverse notches in at least one face thereof, the notches at each end of each series extending to the end of the stringer, metal collars encircling and binding each end of each stringer, planks extending transversely of the stringer and secured in the notches, and a metal flange encompassing substantially the entire outer edge of each of the end planks of the series, said metal flange being secured to the collars.

4. A pallet comprising a plurality of spaced wooden stringersformed with a series of transverse notches in at least one face thereof, metal collars encircling and binding the respective ends of the stringers, a series of wooden planks extending transversely of the stringers and seated in said notches, said notches having a depth corresponding substantially to the thickness of the planks, means for securing the planks in the notches. said stringers provided with one or more elongated openings along the median line thereof.

5. A pallet comprising a plurality of wooden stringers each formed with a series of spaced transverse notches on its upper and lower faces, the notches at the ends of each series extend ing to the ends of the stringers, and protective members for the stringers and planks, said members including collars for encircling the ends of the stringers and flanges secured to the collars and enveloping the outer edge of the planks at the end of each series.

HARRY LEHRMAN.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 487,211 Dodd Nov. 29, 1892 650,636 Cunningham et a1. May 29, 1900 1,829,550 Symons Oct. 27, 1931 2,172,796 Krasin Sept. 12, 1939 2,311,280 Quayle e Feb. 16, 1943 2,327,847 Quayle Aug. 24, 1943 

